Recent Russian Popular Science Book Recommendations | April 25 2025, 02:49

Recommend something worthwhile from popular science in Russian — probably something that has been released in the last year and a half.

I’m organizing additions to my bookshelf – this time from publishers in the Russian language.

Challenges on American Roads: A Scooter Ride Perspective | April 24 2025, 21:15

Such are the much-touted American roads. This becomes particularly apparent when you are riding on tiny wheels at a speed of 45 km/h on a scooter. Of course, along the dividing line, it seems, there’s no need for repairs. The question really is how the asphalt deteriorates there at all if there are no signs of repairs either to the left or right anywhere along the road. It was built 13 years ago, which seems not too long ago.

Botched American Symbols in Safronov’s Artwork | April 22 2025, 21:29

The “artwork” by Safronov that the American delegation didn’t dare to show publicly, simply because the unskilled artist in the process of sketching the photo of the flag under the photo of the president decided not to bother with the 50 little stars, just drawing however many he did, where the stars look quite drunken. It’s impossible to fit 50 there, but if you roughly follow the pattern, you end up with 46, or if you strain to imagine perhaps another hidden one, then 47. There’s simply nowhere to put the other three. That means, three or four are missing. Well, okay, we get the hint about Alaska, but what about the other two? Any ideas?

P.S. Regarding the fact that on the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty from the facial side there’s no New York to be seen, and that the pedestal is depicted in reverse perspective — probably just minor details 🙂

Innovative Concert Ticketing System Proposal | April 21 2025, 23:28

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I feel a lack of a service where I could periodically add what I want to listen to live, within reach from where I live, and where I would receive proposals to buy a concert ticket with dates — mainly based on what I indicated, but I wouldn’t mind getting recommendations sometimes either.

It would also be interesting to see how this model would work: selling tickets on the basis of “I queue up for a ticket costing N dollars, ready to dash on the day of the concert if a ticket comes but also prepared to lose the money if a ticket is available but I can’t attend”. The idea is that, one day before the concert, all the seats not normally sold are distributed to those in this queue starting with those who placed a higher amount in their bid, and if the amounts are the same, then those who applied earlier, and so on until the tickets run out. Meanwhile, the application includes consent that the money will either be charged on a specified day or not at all if no seats are available. Ultimately, the entire venue fills up, and the day before the concert brings in much more money than it would have without this system.

Chasing Horowitz: A Pianist’s Journey Through Manageable Masterpieces | April 21 2025, 03:29

When you turn on modern virtuoso pianists (about 70% of them are Chinese), everything is great, but it never even crossed my mind to go look for the sheet music because they just don’t play anything even remotely at my level. If I were to start learning today, I might barely manage the first two pages by retirement.

But with Horowitz, it’s a completely different story. For the third time on my playlist, I come across pieces that are technically manageable, which I immediately rush to the internet to download and print for myself, thinking, how did I miss these before? And for the third time, I realize that in these seemingly simple pieces, Horowitz sets such a “bar” in performance, in sound, in the character of the performance, that all that seeming simplicity evaporates (and maybe by retirement, I’ll manage two pages).

Today, I printed out four pages of Consolation No. 3 in D-Flat Major by Franz Liszt. It’s very beautiful and not very difficult technically, but to play even close to Horowitz…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGDJZgQPK8E

But that’s for later. Right now, I’m learning a short piece, Träumerei by Robert Schumann. It’s the same story — technically simple, but not at all simple in its sound.. especially after listening to Horowitz… The link is in the comments.

Easter Traditions: Påskekrim, Bunnies, and Ancient Pizzas | April 20 2025, 15:24

It turns out that Norway has a unique Easter tradition called “påskekrim (translated from Norwegian as “Easter crime). Every Easter, Norwegians voraciously consume detective novels and thrillers, watch crime series, and listen to audio investigations. This tradition is so well-established that bookstores before Easter create special sections featuring new detective stories (marked as “påskekrim), crime-themed TV series are broadcasted, and sometimes even milk cartons carry short detective tales.

The tradition began in 1923 when two young Norwegian authors—Norrdahl Gryug and Nils Lie—released a detective novel titled “The Train to Bergen Has Been Robbed at Night. On the eve of Easter, the publishing house placed an advertisement for the novel on the front page of one of the largest newspapers, styled it as real news. People mistook it for an actual event, and the book instantly became a hit. Since then, the tradition has taken root.

Additionally, it turns out that the “Easter Bunny” originates from German Lutheran practices, where the bunny initially played the role of a judge, evaluating children’s behavior—whether they had been obedient or disobedient—at the beginning of the Easter period, similar to Santa Claus’s “naughty and nice” list. Moreover, according to lore, this creature carries a basket filled with painted eggs and sometimes candies and toys, which it leaves in the homes of children. Thankfully, not in a stocking!

By the way, it’s sometimes a bunny and sometimes a rabbit. Apparently, it’s not that important.

There’s another dubious but quite popular interpretation. According to it, the name “Easter” comes from Eostre (Eostra), a Teutonic goddess revered as a goddess of spring and fertility. According to Teutonic myth, a little girl once found a dying bird and prayed for assistance from Eostre. The goddess appeared, crossing the rainbow bridge—the snow melting under her feet. Seeing the bird gravely injured, Eostre transformed it into a hare and told the girl that from then on, the hare would return every year, carrying eggs dyed the colors of the rainbow. However, it’s noted that Eostre’s name is only mentioned once—by Bede the Venerable in his work De Temporum Ratione (“The Reckoning of Time”). No other mentions of this name exist. Moreover, there are no tales or legends associated with Eostre; thus, anything told about her is considered apocryphal. Yet, no better explanations seem to exist.

And shifting from hares and goddesses to something more down-to-earth, it turns out that even pizza has an Easter past. The earliest recorded use of the word pizza dates back to May 997 and is found in a Latin notarial document from the city of Gaeta, which was then part of the Byzantine Empire. The text says that a tenant was to annually give the bishop twelve pizzas and a pair of chickens on Easter. So, who knows—perhaps the first festive Easter pizza was not a margarita but something between a ritual and a rent.

Dumplings and Density: A Culinary Physics Exploration | April 18 2025, 18:08

Suddenly, it hit me – why not have some dumplings? So now, for the second day in a row, I’m devouring dumplings, with three different kinds in the fridge already. Plus, I bought some herring, and Nadya, without coordinating, also brought some. The fridge is surprised; it hasn’t seen either in a long time.

So, while I eat another serving, I’m googling why dumplings float. It’s not trivial, by the way.

Overall, the physics of this floating process is complex. They don’t float just because. Let’s start with the dough. It contains starch which absorbs water and swells (gelatinization), increasing the volume. Inside, the proteins in the dough denature, creating a more rigid structure. Some water evaporates/boils, forming bubbles. Result: the density of the dough decreases, aiding the floating. Meanwhile, the proteins in the meat also denature, become denser, and release moisture, decreasing the meat’s volume. The fat melts. Thus, for the meat itself: density increases, which counters the floating. Moreover, water penetrates inside the dumpling where it wasn’t before, also acting against the floating, as it simply becomes heavier. But the moisture released from the meat (juice) and water in the meat itself can boil, forming steam bubbles inside the filling. These bubbles offset the densification of the meat, and overall density of the filling also decreases (or remains the same).

In the end, the reduction in density of both the dough and the filling (due to the bubbles) leads to a decrease in the overall density of the dumpling, making it float.

Salt barely affects the cooking speed. Although salt raises the boiling point of water (Raoult’s law), to significantly speed up cooking, you’d need to add so much (10g per 2L) that the dumplings would become unbearably salty. In normal amounts, salt is just for taste.

Also, there is such a phenomenon as osmosis which is the reason for the tasty broth. Water penetrates inside the dumpling through the porous dough (osmosis), making the filling juicier. Substances from the filling leach into the water, making the broth tastier and fattier.

Curating a Diverse Bookshelf: Art, Science, and Beyond | April 18 2025, 17:28

The books requested a new home. Brought the home, settled the home, group photos from the housewarming.

Fed the pics to ChatGPT, got a booklist. Edited a bit, it makes mistakes.

Top shelf – art. I only keep the best in the list:

1. Alla Prima II by Richard Schmid

2. Virgil Elliott – Traditional Oil Painting

3. Anatomy for Sculptors – Uldis Zarins

4. Anatomy of Facial Expression – Uldis Zarins

5. Form of the Head and Neck – Uldis Zarins

6. Impressionism by Bomford, Kirby

7. Lessons in Classical Painting by Juliette Aristides

8. The Practice of Oil Painting & Drawing by Solomon J. Solomon

Second shelf – science and other science pop

Sergey Yastrebov “From Atoms to the Tree” (biology, chemistry)

Kukushkin – Clapping with One Hand (biology)

Burlak — The Origin of Language (linguistics)

Eric Kandel – In Search of Memory (biology)

Andrew Solomon- Far from the Tree (biology)

Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene (biology)

Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens (history)

Yuval Noah Harari – Nexus (history)

The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene (physics)

Carl Zimmer – Life’s Edge (biology)

Carl Zimmer – She has a mother’s laugh (biology)

Semikhatov — Everything That Moves (physics)

Poluektov – Mysteries of Sleep (psychology)

Noga Gál – The Living and the Dead Word (linguistics)

Kitaigorodsky – Entertaining Theory of Probability (mathematics)

Steven Pinker- How the Mind Works (biology, psychology)

Robert Sapolsky – Determined (biology, psychology)

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Accessory to War (astrophysics)

Flavor by Bob Holmes (biology)

Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel (biology)

Marilyn Sheldrake – Entangled Life (biology)

Wolfram – A New Kind of Science (mathematics)

Frans de Waal – Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (psychology)

Eidelman – How Propaganda Works (psychology)

Peter Godfrey – Metazoa (biology)

Asya Kazantseva – Who Would Have Thought! (hard to say)

Asya Kazantseva – Someone Is Wrong on the Internet (–“–)

Asya Kazantseva – The Brain is Material (–“–)

Gordon – Structures, why things don’t fall down (architecture)

Thomas Heatherwick – Humanize (? design, architecture?)

Ed Yong – I Contain Multitudes (biology)

Po Bronson, Arvind Gupta – Decoding the World (biology)

Jonathan Haidt – The Anxious Generation (psychology)

Plus, some books there are biographies and fiction. Unfortunately, many good books I’ve read and would like to put on the shelf are not in paper but in digital or left behind in a past life.

Recommend what else I might like.